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Wednesday, January 14, 2015

Sorry, I'd Rather Not Speak Dollar Sign!

One
of my favourite classes to take in school was film studies class. Imagine going to a class to watch a whole
bunch of movies for free and having discussions about all of them...and getting
class credit for it!

Mind
you, we also had to film our own video projects as well as put together
presentations for the class as well.
But let's face it. Watching
"Jurassic Park" and "Star Wars" in class was definitely the
highlight of any school day!

Of
course, we didn't just watch summer blockbusters in class. That would be too much, even for the most
lenient of professors or teachers. We
watched a wide variety of films in class.
We watched foreign films such as "Run Lola Run" and "The
Seventh Seal". We watched Canadian
made films such as "Exotica" and "The Sweet
Hereafter". In one case, I do
believe that in one of my college film classes, we watched a film that could be
best described as soft core pornography.
But, yeah, we won't be talking about that film in here. I'm trying to keep this blog "PG"
rated.

That
said, one of the films that I remember watching was the 1972 film
"Cabaret", which starred Joel Grey, Michael York, and Liza
Minnelli. It was a film that was based
on the Broadway musical of the same name, and it won eight Academy Awards -
none of which were for Best Picture, might I add! It was a great film, though, and the musical performances by the
whole cast were very well done.

But
looking back at that film, while all of the songs definitely had their impact
on the movie, I think that this duet between Minnelli and Grey probably had the
most impact on me.

Sadly,
this prophecy seemingly has come true.
Money makes the world go round.

And
as a self confessed non-materialistic man, I can't say that I like it. Unfortunately, there's no going back from
it. Well, unless we abandon money
altogether and go right back to trading spices and fruits and vegetables for
goods and services, which admittedly would not fly in 2015.

It
isn't because I am anti-capitalism. Far
from it.

I
think the reason why I get so jaded when it comes to money is seeing how it has
taken over so many people's lives, and more importantly, how wasteful some
people are with it.

Granted,
working at a retail chain in which the phrase "save money, live
better" is drilled into your head at every waking moment is probably not
helping change my stance anytime soon, but I sometimes get a little bit ticked
off when you hear people having conversations and they can't go five seconds
without mentioning a particular word or phrase that is linked to money. Phrases like "count your pennies",
or "I'm not paying that amount of money for that". I would like to live in a world where I
don't speak "dollar sign". I
would love to have a conversation with someone else in which money is not the
main focus.

I
also think that when it comes to saving money, some people seem to grasp this
concept very well, while others miss the mark completely. Somehow, I don't really see buying 75 boxes
of Kraft Dinner to save twenty-six dollars as being all that great of a deal
unless you really love Kraft Dinner.
Personally, I couldn't stomach eating Kraft Dinner for even one meal,
let alone seventy-five, but that's just my personal preference. And don't even get me started on those
extreme couponers. I'm relieved that we
don't really have that phenomenon in Canada as double and triple coupons are
not honoured here because I have seen people go out of control with the
coupons.

Granted,
getting a thousand dollars worth of groceries for $1.89 is a fantastic
achievement, but my heart absolutely goes out to the poor cashier who has to
ring through every single item and then punch in every single coupon that
corresponds with said item. I thought
we had it bad with ad matching, but those extreme coupon people really take it
over the top!

In
fact, while one can argue that the people who are extreme couponers save a
truckload of money by purchasing items in bulk, one could also argue that they
are being somewhat greedy. You see, I
know how retail works, having been in the business for a decade now. It is not always easy to refill the store
shelves quickly. Many stores like mine
rely on outside warehouses to ship the product to our stores, and if an item is
out of stock in the warehouse, then we cannot replenish the item. So, if you're buying fifty bars of soap to
save money, what are the other people who legitimately only need to buy one or
two bars supposed to do? Go to another
store? Or wait until more comes
in? I mean, some people take the quest
to save money so far that it almost makes it seem like they are out for
themselves and don't really care about anybody else.

Mind
you, I am not saying that ALL people are like this. I imagine quite a few people donate some of the stuff they bought
to local food banks or homeless shelters, and that is fantastic!

But
it just maddens me that so many people seem to be showing such gluttony and
levels of greed in this world. It seems
as though "Please" and "Thank You" have been replaced with
cries of "I Want" and "Gimme Gimme Gimme". I think that's why I'm jaded about money.

Though, given that people have lied, cheated, and stolen on shows like "Survivor", "Big Brother", and the deliciously named train wreck of a show called "I Love Money" for a million bucks, I suppose that it's not hard for anyone to feel that way.

I
don't know about anyone else, but I don't feel the need to keep up with the
Joneses, Smiths, Rockefellers, or Kardashians.
I don't need to live in a sixty-seven room mansion with golden staircases
and a marble fountain in every hallway.
I long to live for the simple things in life. I don't need much money to make me happy. Just enough so that I can live a nice, quiet
life. Besides, look around at the
people who are supposedly very rich in money.
Do any of them really look all that happy to you? Just think about it for a second.

I
guess if I had to look at myself and compare myself to a minor pop culture
character, I would be like the guy who tries to romance Madonna in the
"Material Girl" video. Though
Madonna sings about wanting to be with a man who showers her with riches, all
she really wants is a man who doesn't try to impress her with expensive
gifts. So, he takes her out on a date
in an old beat-up truck. Unfortunately,
he ends up paying for the truck with a fist full of cash making the whole video
one big show of irony. Proving that
even the simplest dreams require a dollar sign or two to make happen.